The decline of the PC has been well documented for many years now. Tablets and smartphones are slowly eating into the PC market’s previous dominance of computing. As a result of this certain markets are slowing down that are associated with PCs and PC monitors is one of those. According to the latest report by IDC (International Data Corporation) the estimates for PC monitors shipped in Q1 of 2013 had to be reduced fro 34.7 million to 33.8 million due to reduced demand. They also said that for 2013 as a whole the total number of shipments will drop from 140.1 million to 134.4 million which is a 9.9% year on year decline from 2012. Furthermore by 2017 worldwide shipments may fall as low as 113.6 million per year.

“The continued decline in PC desktops is bringing about changes in strategy and product focus in the PC monitor market,” said Jennifer Song, Research Analyst at IDC. “With Windows 8 operating system, we expect to see more touch-based monitors although price points are a little high. Average screen size of the market is also expected to increase to 21.4″ in 2017 from 20.4″ in 2012.”

Negatives aside there are some other interesting trends happening in the PC Monitor market. Firstly LED technology is on the rise with a 15.7% year on year increase in uptake. The aspect ration 16:9 continues to dominate most displays with 75% market share while 16:10 comes in second place. TV Tuners embedded in monitors are expected to grow from nearly 5.7% to 7.6% of the market by 2017.

Furher more Samsung, Dell, HP and LG all saw declines in their monitor business with AOC being the only vendor to see positive year on year growth.